One soldier, 13 policemen injured in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 11:58 GMT]One soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and four policemen of the Sri Lankan Police including a Sub-Inspector sustained injuries in two separate incidents in the suburbs of Trincomalee town Tuesday when the east port town observed a general shut down condemning the killing of LTTE cadres by a group of unidentified gunmen last Sunday at Chelvanayakapuram, Police said.

In the first incident that took place at Anuradhapura junction, a suburb about four km off the east port town along Trincomalee-Kandy, an unidentified person fired at a group of soldiers manning the checkpoint around 12.30 p.m. Tuesday. A soldier identified as Bandara sustained injuries, Police said.

In the second incident that took place Tuesday afternoon around 3.30 p.m near Allesgarden area on Trincomalee-Nilaveli road unidentified persons lobbed a grenade into the truck in which members of anti-riot squad of the Trincomalee Police were on patrol duty. 13 policemen including a sub-inspector Perera were injured in this incident, Police said.

Three of them had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Trincomalee general hospital, sources said.

Hospital sources said the conditions of two of them were critical.

More army soldiers and policemen have been deployed to strengthen the security in the Trincomalee town and its suburbs following these incidents, sources said.